To:G. V. CHICHERIN[1]

Dictated:Dictated by phonePublished:First published in 1965 inCollected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 54.

      Printed from a typewritten copy.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1976,

      Moscow,Volume 45,

      pages485b-486a.Translated:Yuri SdobnikovTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet ArchiveYou may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Comrade Chicherin or Litvinov

Copy to ComradeMolotov(for Politbureau members)

February 25, 1922

Havingread, apart from the telegrams, the leaders in
today’s newspapers, I come to the conclusion that the
Note concerning the postponement of the Genoa Conference
without any indication of date should be couched in the
most insolent and derisive tone, so that the people at
Genoa should feel the slap in the face. It looks as though the
only way to create an actual impression is to be
superinsolent. In particular, we could say that among our
counterclaims we include the expenses incidental to the fact
that these powers have failed to fulfil their initial
obligation—to convene the conference at the appointed time.
We must not miss the opportunity when we can, through
an insolent and mocking Note, help bring about a situationin which all the pacifist elements of the bourgeoisie will
be strengthened all over the
world.[2]

[1]Leninwrote this letter, as well as the note to the Politbureau
members of February 24, and the notes to J. V. Stalin and L. B.
Kamenev of February 25, 1922 (see this volume, Document 649,
and also present edition, Vol. 42, p. 404), in connection with a
radio message from the Italian Foreign Minister Torretta to
G. V. Chicherin of February 24, 1922, saying that the Italian
Government was forced to postpone the Genoa Conference in view
of a ministerial crisis. The radio message was published inIzvestia VTsIKNo. 45, on February 25, 1922.

[2]Thatsame day, February 25, 1922, Chicherin sent Italian Foreign
Minister Torretta and British Foreign Secretary Curzon a
telegram on the date of the Genoa Conference, and it was publishedinIzvestia VTsIKNo. 47, on February 28, 1922 (seeDokumenty
vneshnei politiki SSSR, Vol. V, Moscow, 1961, pp. 113–15).